UConn football fans miffed by game coverage on ESPNU

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published 8:00 pm, Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Apparently, fans weren't alone. UConn athletic director Jeff Hathaway wasn't thrilled, either. Hathaway said he believes the Huskies have become a bargaining chip in ESPN's battle to expand the coverage of its college sports-only channel.

"I fully understand that the University of Connecticut and the University of Connecticut football program is being used by the network to leverage cable companies in our state, which are so important to the network, to add ESPNU to their platform," Hathaway said Tuesday. "We understand that. We know that's what's happening."

Comcast, the largest cable provider in Connecticut, does not carry ESPNU. Cox has added it to its digital lineup and the network is available with DirecTV's sports package.

Hathaway said his chief concern is the exposure that the Huskies "deserve" after starting 7-1 and 3-0 in conference play.

"We're sitting here in first place in the Big East Conference,"

Hathaway said. "We should have the opportunity to capitalize on that position as other member institutions have in this conference in similar situations."

Hathaway is also concerned about a financial loss. For appearing on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2, the UConn AD said his school would receive approximately $100,000. There is no compensation paid to a school for appearing on ESPNU.

Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said his office has some weekly input in regard to television coverage, but that ESPN officials ultimately decide which games appear on each network. But Tranghese equated the frustration of local fans to the experiences many had before ESPN2 became widely available.

"I think we're probably paying a short-term price in terms of exposure," Tranghese said Tuesday. "But I would expect in a short period of time from now that ESPNU will be on a wide range of cable systems they're not on.

"I'm not going to throw this at ESPN because we were aware of this when we signed the contract. And our schools were, too," Tranghese added.

Tranghese said the league's contract with ESPN has already been fulfilled -- and then some -- in terms of the number of games it has carried.

"The logical question, if I'm a fan, is why didn't you contract for more?" Tranghese said. "We're in the final year of a contract that was arbitrated at a time when we didn't have a full membership. If somebody could have told me back then we didn't even know who was going to be playing football in this league and we were trying to put ourselves back together again, that three years later I knew Connecticut was going to be ranked in the top 20 in the country with one loss, no losses in the league and tied for first place."